The housing crisis in major cities has gone absolutely insane. Everyone I know is close to their mid-30s and living with family, roommates, or a significant other, which is wonderful when it's what you CHOOSE to do. But it's incredibly frustrating when you HAVE to. I recently moved to the countryside with my family, but you just don't have the accessibility to things that major cities have. Thank you again for such an insightful video! I saw your current apartment tour and it's such a lovely space! ☺
I'm also an ex-city dweller 5Paris, then Brussels) who now is a happy "refugee" in the countryside. I live in a 3-bedroom, 150 sq.meters house with a 600 sq.meters garden, with a view to nearby forests and moutains, for the price of a small one-bedroom apartment, smaller than my living room, in some neighborhoods of Paris. As for the accessibility of things... yes, you cannot live where I live without a car (public transportation being both scarce and impractical), yes there are less commodities than in town but I've realized that I just didn't need most of them. I still have two supermarkets at a short five to ten-minute driving distance, and a good baker in the village, as well as a medical center with a physician, a physiotherapist and a lab for blood tests, X-rays, and scanner... the essential amenities. And we have a large enough shopping mall only 20 kms away if needed. And I've made more friends here in five years than during 25 years in my previous life. I now go to the cities only if I need to, and it's like being on another planet; there's no way I'd know leave "my" countryside (the real countryside, not a suburban town, fake-countryside fake-city).
@@paxundpeace9970 There are enough empty apartments in Paris. Here that's not a case of housing crisis but a case of people not from Paris, who can't afford living in Paris and accept all the living conditions. The average Parisian doesn't live like that and real Parisians don't even consider living like that.
People who choose to live in the countryside, don’t appreciate, understandably, the impact that is caused by the sector of the “urban” population, who currently, are moving to the countryside, not out of choice, but because they can’t afford anything else.
We stayed in one of these tiny apartments via AirB&B for a week. This explains the extremely cramped, crooked and steep stairs to get to the room. I couldn’t imagine anyone really living in it for any length of time. Very interesting video.
I stayed in several of these when homelidays was around. one of them had a spiral staircase entrance that was like cave exploring making me claustrophobic (and Im just 5.5 foot tall and thin) but the location was good 4th ar near the subway
Maids' rooms and servants!! That kind of thing would be unspeakable today outside of France, say in Australia or the U.S., where nobody is a servant of anyone. I recall another one of Lucile's videos where she talked about why people in France act the way they do. There was a segment about customer service, how people in France don't want to be "treated like servants." It makes sense, that there was a group of people historically, that played the role of servants.
Whenever I'm starting to feel frustrated with the small amount of space I have I watch one of those videos about tiny apartments in Paris or Tokyo and then I feel so grateful for my 23sqm apartment in Germany. I have a small kitchen with two stovetops and a mini oven, a sofa that can be turned into a bed within seconds, a small fridge, some shelves, a drawer, a clothes rack, a small bathroom with a washer dryer and even a few houseplants
Well arent' you a F ray of sunshine?! PS: Nobody like a braggard! I bet people aren't lininhg up to pick you as a friend, but what else can you expect of the callous Germans?! Not tact or diplomacy, that's for sure!
Sounds like you have a great home; space isn't everything when you live in an awesome city. For us Americans, a studio is usually closer to 400 square feet, or just over 37 square meters, and it ALWAYS has a private bathroom plus kitchenette with refrigerator, stovetop, sink and microwave. Everything in America is "new" compared with Europe; "old" to us is buildings constructed in the 1940s or 50s. Any place without a private bathroom is typically called a "hostle" and is only rented on a day-to-day basis.
Why I'm so grateful to live in the US I love in a good city make over 6 figures and live in a 2500 SQ ft apt. This is insane. Not even NYC is this destitute.
@@NB-nh2sf I'll one up you, brand new 3500sq feet, 6 acres in rural-ish northwest NJ. I could NEVER live in a city, or an apartment, the noises the smells, etc etc... no thanks. yeah def grateful,
the problem is also not just the size but the quality like u said. some people might choose to live small, but if there’s mold, no toilet or other problems, thqt can be bad for health
Look at Hong Kong now, apartments that had one family have been divided up, now it's basically a 'room is your apartment' and you share the toilet and bathroom with your 'neighbours "!!
Years ago I visited some relatives in Paris. My cousin and I went to go pick up her boyfriend to go shopping one time, and he lived in one of these "maid's room" apartments. As an American, I was shocked at how tiny and cramped it was. However, it had an _amazing_ view of the city. Thanks, Haussmann!
As a nurse in the UK, during lock down, I made a mad decision to buy an old, but well kept caravan to live in, off grid, on a farm, probablythe size of these apartments. The biggest issue was, if things break down, they were monumentally expensive to repair. So if someone is good at fixing stuff, you will fare much better than me. Or if you can afford a newer caravan, again, it's worth it. And if their are 2 of you, I highly recommend having an awning for a big of space apart. This aside, my little home was all I needed. I was happy there, I certainly didn't feel cramped. And living around farm animals and nature was great for my mental health! I noticed that a lot of men were intrigued by my lifestyle and were quite envious!!
That sounds so awesome! Do you ever consider maybe doing a TH-cam channel about your tiny home space. I think the most intriguing thing about living in a tiny space like a caravan, is that it actually makes for bigger living because you’re able to live in more spacious places. If that makes any sense.
No matter how small. If you have a home of your own to live in count your blessings. Remember there are so many out there without a home having to live on the streets, in their cars or in shelters. Thank God and practice gratitude because a tiny apartment is better than no apartment. 💯
Housing crisis in the last few years has gone insane. I'm in Australia, by miracle timing I bought my first home at the end of 2018, it was among the cheapest on the market in my city but it's solid and modern enough built in 2005. Currently spending 25% of my income on the mortgage payment, but if I am to instead rent this house today, the rent would take up about 60-70% of my income (I make slightly above median income). No bank would even think of giving a home loan to me to I try buying my house at it's current value, it's near doubled since I bought it. Had I not bought my house in 2018, my income level would only allows me to rent either a very small mouldy unit or studio apartment, or just one room of a shared house or apartment (forget buying, literally nothing within 50km of the city is in price range for my income), both options would still cost more than my current mortgage payments.
@@transhusbando4233 It was 30 years term starting 6 years ago. but I've managed to take advantage of the lowest interest rates 4 years ago to pay off extra as much as I could, so maybe 18 years left.
I'm glad to hear from someone who isn't or at least doesn't seem judgy and condescending toward people who weren't able to do this but is just sympathetic.
I live in Madrid at the moment and the situation is getting worse each year. More and more people are moving to big European cities when there is actually a pretty incredible and effective solution we all tested during the pandemic called : remote work. So many companies exceeded their targets, so many people could move back to small towns and find better ways to balance work and their personal lives. Governments instead of giving large companies tax deductions for each employee that is hired with a remote contract decided instead to cooperate with this companies to stop this remote work from spreading. But I still believe it is the best way to stop gentrification.
Or increase it…. Lots of quaint cute towns in Canada had mass amounts of remote workers move in now that they didn’t have to live in the cities, and then they wanted to gentrify these little towns. It’s like in Beetlejuice when the dad wants to turn the little town into the city he just moved away from. They drove up housing prices and drove out local families who had lived there for generations. Go back to the city!
It’s all about real estate, and preserving the profits from leasing space in massive office buildings that have no other reason for their existence. CEOs live separate lives from us plebes, but they’re not loners - they hang out together. And a RE CEO tells his Tech CEO buddy that if his buildings empty out, his RE company’s stock price tanks, and there goes their twice weekly golf game, there goes his yacht, and the annual multi-family trip to the Seychelles isn’t happening. Tech CEO issues an RTO order the next day, in the face of all logic - other than the logic of the market.
@@shinyshinythings I completely agree, and I’d add that CEOs aren’t just hanging out with each other-they’re also closely tied to politicians. Politicians are deeply involved in these business deals and investments, yet they go out in public and point fingers, saying things like, “These greedy corporations, BlackRock, and CEOs are the bad guys keeping you poor and rents high.” Meanwhile, they’re all in it together, protecting their shared interests. And here we are, stuck fighting over right-wing vs. left-wing nonsense, while the real power players work behind the scenes to keep the system rigged in their favor.
Oh my, that is bad even at best of times, but I can't even begin to imagine what it must have been like during the Covid lockdown, when (in France) people had to stay in their flats and couldn't even go outside at all!! 😲 Totally clautrophobic... I would totally have gone insane.
@@TheSilmarillian I live rurally too, although not off-grid, but the simple fact of even considering living in a city now makes me feel like the air is being choked out of me.
I moved out of Warsaw - the capital of Poland, where housing prices is also very high. I bought a small flat in cash, and have 30 minutes by car or train to some bigger city, although there's also work around here. I just don't like the culture in smaller cities. I used to spend an hour up to 2 hours to get to work in Warsaw, so 30 minutes is not that bad in comparison.
Paris has a strong focus on protecting the rights of people with limited resources. However, despite these protections, there seems to be little effort to address the housing crisis, with many complaining but not taking significant action. This is especially notable in this city known for luxury brands like Chanel and Dior.
Thank you SO much for explaining!!! I went to Paris and wandered the streets but could not understand the "canyon" feeling of identical tall buildings or the reason! Now I know! Thank you! By the way-your video showed the restaurant where I had dinner, a couple glasses of French wine while experiencing Paris! A truly "Bucket list" experience! THANK YOU!!!
When I was young, i used to live in rented bedsits with shared bathrooms and kitchens, but this was a cheap way to live, and you wouldn't have bought the room as an individual unit, it would be solt as part of a flat or house. I'm in Scotland , housing here is in a terrible state - so expensive and hard to get. Then councils 3nd up housing homeless people in expensive bed and breakfasts which are of course paid for by the state.good for the landlords but no one else. The problem is not just in large cities - it' s country wide -but is probably at its worst in Edinburgh. Ive heard of working people living in the youth hostel, which is only meant to be temporary accommodation for travellers, and what you get is a bed in a dormitory. We're regressing to the nineteenth century. Landlords can make much more money by letting to holidaymakers and ( in the case of Edinburgh) festival performers than locals.
I stayed several times with a friend who lived in Paris many years ago, in the 13th Arr. It was in a typical mid-19th century building, with a courtyard and no elevator. His apartment was actually reasonably sized and on a middle floor, but the kitchen was tiny and the bathroom microscopic and clearly tacked-on at some point so the residents wouldn't have to use the common bathroom in the hallway (and so the common bathroom could be incorporated into one or more of the subdivided apartments. There was also this odd hot water heater, so clearly the building had no steam or hot water, just cold running water (that may or may not have been original, not sure). It was a bit of an adjustment at first, especially the bathroom, but it wasn't so bad and I could see living there for a few years on a student or low wage worker's budget. I've certainly lived in "challenging" apartments when I was younger. And it's part of that whole La Boheme starving artist/student/worker experience. Years later, after he got married and moved into a larger and modern apartment in the banlieu with his wife, and I stayed with them several times, I actually kind of missed it, both the apartment itself and its location not far from central Paris. I'm not the sort of person who needs a lot of space or luxury to be comfortable, just a clean, well-heated, fairly quiet place, with some sort of view even if its of the building across the street and maybe some trees and sky if you stick your head out.
@@romancetips365 Some struggle and sacrifice early in life builds character and makes you appreciate the better things in life, and allows you to save some money for later on in life, so living in less desirable places in your 20's might not be "romantic", but it does have certain advantages. And you're best able to tolerate it at that point in your life as well. Not everyone has a high-paying job or rich parents.
I'm french and I lived in Paris for 27 years. People are not forced to live in these appartments, they can choose to live in bigger places just outside paris for the same kind of rent. But they still want to live in Paris.
So… yes, they’re forced. Because they want to live in Paris - likely near their work, friends, family, but are obstructed from doing so by over-population, rich people with too-large spaces, and artificially inflated rents. If you can’t live in a decent amount of space for a decent amount of money in the place where you want to live then, yes, you’re forced to take what you can get or forced to leave where you want to live. Not complicated.
Yes, if you want to live in the centre of one of the most beautiful cities in the world, instead of in the suburbs, you will probably have to pay a fortune in rent!
@madnessintomagic Nope. If you want to live in a chambre de bonne in Paris, rather than in a studio a few miles away from Paris, that's a choice. As long as people will be willing to make that choice, rents won't go down!
Great video Lucile. I am a Californian who just visited Paris last week and I have been binge watching your vidoes since I got back home. I love how you have found your niche from a Travel Vlog channel to now Parisian Lifestyle channel.
You visited Paris??? I would be petrified to go there, due to all the mass immigration, taking over the culture! It is not safe! Haven't you seen the tons of videos about this??
The housing crisis in California is getting this bad. My whole family is shoved into one room, and all our stuff is in one shed because we can't afford our own place. I had to get rid of pretty much everything I owned except the most important because I have a child. We need affordable housing for families OR better-paying jobs.
So interesting! I studied in Paris in 1989-90 and was crestfallen when I did not get the chambre de bonne I wanted in the 17th that was so beautiful and romantic. But I ended up renting a nice bedroom and bathroom in a large apartment right by Mo Corentin Celton for 1,800 FF/month. It worked out. Paris apartments are a passion for me. Every time I go to Paris, which is about once a year, I come home wanting to buy an apartment in Paris. I'm close to retirement now, and I think if I bought something in France, I'd be better off in Nice where it's warmer. Thanks for your research and for your excellent English!
@@nycp1969 I lived in a chambre de bonne in the 17th in ‘88 and ‘89. My balcony was larger than my room and in the warmer months I would put my mattress on it and sleep outside. Most of the other chambre de bonne’s were empty. There was one guy on my floor with whom I shared a Turkish toilet. Thankfully he kept it immaculately clean.
@@annawinkel6509 Yikes! I'd not have wanted to use a Turkish toilet, much less share one. I had my own bathroom and a large bedroom with a B&W TV. I watched Happy Days and Who's the Boss dubbed into French. The apartment I was in was an ugly 1970s building. It killed me to take it, but time was running out on my temporary stay in the Foyer des Etudiantes. I was an etudiant, and boys were only allowed prior to the start of the fall term. The 17th is maybe my 4th favorite arrt., after the 15th, 16th and 7th in that order.
@ I mostly waited until I was downstairs in the apartment of the family I worked for - my Canadian friend was over once and had to use it and she actually said she preferred it to the regular one on her floor because it was so clean. She shared a floor with a lot of students and she said her bathroom was always dirty. My room only had room for a single bed and an armoire from IKEA. My balcony was surprisingly large.
@@annawinkel6509 Turkish toilets are so hard for women. I was in Paris for the first time as a teenager with my mother and grandmother, who was a really good sport about using one in a cafe when she was almost 70. Such great memories. I wonder if there's a forum for Americans who studied in Paris. We're a group with very similar experiences that are very special to us.
I remember reading that because of those chambres du bonne Paris is in, like, top 3 places for heatwave related deaths in western world, cause you got a teeny tiny space with a sheet of metal on top
I was very interested to watch this video because I know that it’s concern as there are more heat waves in Europe - there’s no way to insulate one of these if it hasn’t been made larger, so it can get very, very hot next to the metal roof
@@languerouge5385 They aren't for the Parisians most of them earning enough to rent them or being granted the social housing (25% of the housing park), housing pension (17% of the Parisians), and the cheap apartments people get through their work. Those leaving Paris are those who can afford living in Paris.
We stayed in a one bedroom apartment for 10 days for $180 per night. It’s located in St Germaine de Pres across from Cafe de Flore. It has elevator. Has a pull out couch in the living room, kitchen and dining area. It was beautiful and clean. It was perfect. It was a walking distance to the great sights in Paris. Perfect for 4 people . I would stay there again.
Great video! We lived in the Auteuil area of the 16eme for 3 years in the early 2000s in a 6th floor apartment that was around 100 sq. m. This was the top floor of the normal apartments and the maid's rooms were on the next floor -- there was a door in the kitchen that went to the service stairway mentioned in the video. Our landlord's family had owned this apartment for decades and lived there for many years. All the apartment owners had a maid's room on the 7th floor and were generally renting them. At some point our landlord has bought a 2nd maid's room and managed to swap with other owners for the 2 maid's rooms directly above his apartment. He then has a circular hole cut in the ceiling of his apartment and installed a spiral staircase from the interior hallway of his apartment to the double sized maid's room on the next floor created by removing the wall between the 2 room he owned there. This created a charming guest room/den on the upper floor which faced towards the western suburbs with a beautiful view and usually had a good breeze it the summer.. It was a big selling point for out lease. We have heard that has since sold the apartment and it is no longer on the rental market. The rent was high, but we were getting expat allowances from my wife's employer who helped with the paperwork.
This video makes me feel so grateful for the 55 sq metre apartment i have here in England .....You see, i have always envied my friends, most of whom live in 150-200 sq metre houses
If the buildings are solid, then it would be easy to combine two or more units into more livable spaces and add elevators, insulation, and new HVAC systems.
The upper floor was usually for the maids and maintenace workers. The communal wash room was on the ground floor in the courtyard . They were still in use until the 1990's that I used. They then had a toilet for 40+ apartments and it was always occupied.
In many US cities tiny apartments are becoming quite common. For example in Seattle on the US west coast, there are many new apartment buildings containing only 150-180 sq. ft (14-17 sq. meters) apartments. These apartments are studios with a small bathroom and some cooking facilities (1-2 element counter top stove, sink, small refrigerator, and most of the time a microwave). The bathroom is included in the apartment size. Such small studio apartments generally rent for $1,000 to $1,250 per month, but the rent can be quite a bit higher if the apartment is in a desirable location or has a nice view. This seems insane to me because when I was at university I rented a 50 square meter one bedroom apartment in Seattle with a water and mountain view for $95 per month and the utilities (water, electricity, heat) were included in the rent.
I rent a 220 sq ft microflat in L.A. Ten foot ceiling and two big south-facing windows! It's an old hotel building. Due to rent control, I pay a bit over $700 with all utilities included. New tenants pay up to $1150. I have golden handcuffs- if I move, I lose all my tenure.
Thanks for posting. I always wondered about the Mansard style Paris buildings and didn't know of the structure with each floor serving a particular type of occupant. So pretty on the outside, now I know what goes on behind the windows.
I live in Tebriz and the standard normal apartment size in the city is around 100 m2 . Living in such circumstances as in Paris would be a total nightmare for me. God help you Parisians all with this housing crisis.
I hope more Iranians watch videos like this so that if any more of them think about migrating to the West, they'll know what's in store for them when they get here. Mass migration to the West is a factor in the housing crisis.
если смотреть в России, то такие квартиры характерны для Москвы и Петербурга. В Петербурге до сих пор очень много коммуналок с комнатами по 10-20 кв.м. так что те, кто получил квартиры от государства со времен Хрущева очень повезло! у нас 58 кв.м. 3 комнаты
Loved your video, Lucile! Great research, loads of good information and as an American, I really appreciate how wonderful your English is. Very understandable for us North American weirdos who even have trouble understanding Brits (and we supposedly speak the same language).
This is mainly typical of Paris I'd say. Lucile very correctly underlines in general renters are very privileged and protected under french law and each year more. This is compared to other countries. It has lead to the housingcrisis, tenants ( propriety owners) preferring to rent very shortterm air bn b instead of longterm. Law allows renters with the usual 3 year lease to leave with only 1 or 2 months notice. The owner however can only give notice for the date the lease is ending and only if it is to be sold or if he is going to live there himself. Unfortunately the maffioso " kitchen in shower bedsits" landlords in Paris don't reflect the overall misery of many otherones, more attentive to their renter's wellbeing ;-)
I lived in a chambre de bonne in the 6th, also on a peniche in the 7th on Seine, and also in a studio on Île de la Cité. The chambre de bonne wasn't so great for hosting parties😹😹 The peniche was the best 🍷🍷👏👏👏👏
I lived in one of these gorgeous apartments with the servants staircase. I was a nanny and one day I decided to look behind a bunch of laundry equipment after noticing the door. Then I went on a little adventure finding my way down the unkept and very unused staircase all the way to the courtyard below. I wish I'd known then what it was really for ;p
is there any other word apart from super? It's for the super rich, for the super poor, these are super tiny and the walls are super thin and in the summer it gets super hot....omg...its super tiring...
This building design is actually pretty ingenious. Created mixed housing is a major issue. Builders want the most money, so they tend to build the fancy apartments only, but you really need middle and working class people in cities and they need affordable housing. When they get priced out, you wind up with massive commuter communities, where poorer people who work in cities live far from them and have to spend hours commuting in. Which then leads to worker shortages. Which can then lead to a collapse of the city, since the rich people don't want to live there if there are no people to support the amenities they want. It's interesting to me that stairs made mixed housing de facto.
Videos like this are good, it helps people see the realities of the city life, it’s not as romantic as people would think. I’ve become disillusioned by the city life a long time ago. I prefer a few close friends in my life in a rural place I can settle down. Nothing wrong with living the simple life, if you are able to.
No it's just modern day socialism, and all its expected outcomes. Black markets and all. The more regulated it becomes, the worse it will get. Black market controls the margins which determines all the prices. They've done it to themselves through pure ignorance. Many other global cities as well.
That was soooo interesting 😊 thank you! I am absolutely in love with Paris architecture and always wondered what’s like to live in one of these buildings!
I don’t envy people living in Europe. When I travel, everything is tiny, including the trash can in the bathrooms. I’m so happy to come back to TX, to my big house.
These apartments are substandard, but still better than ending up on the street. Still, there are real problems with this system and it sounds like there are real needs for reforms of these short term contracts, even if they still allow these to be rented on a short term basis.
It's called life where the black market dominates. The inevitable outcome of over-regulation and socialist policies. People just refuse to learn from history.
OMG. About 40 years ago, I had the privilege of being invited to a Tunisian’s apartment which was as you described. I was in awe of how small the place was. This video reminded me of that moment. So 40 years later I find out what that was all about. Great video. Thank you. BTW. I’m retired now and have an unusual situation that makes me live in several countries. Home in the US is fully paid for. No monthly expenditure to the banks or a landlord. BUT. Property taxes are the same as rent. About $900 every quarter for my place. I saw on some tax papers property taxes of $27,000 per year. What???
Tiny living spaces being available isn't the same as people being "forced" to live in them. Another way of expressing it is that people are allowed to live in them, whereas in many cities they are not an option, and the poor can't live there at all.
For a while, I did live in the old town of Bern. The apartment was 20 meters long, 2 meters high and 2.5 meters wide, with public stairs in the middle (had to go "outside" between the kitchen and the bedroom). Of course, very dark and no sun. This is how people lived before us.
I always wonder, why they do.not combine two chambre de bonne together, space wise. Still.tight enough. In Ireland there we're often greedy landlords too, putting bunk beds in every room of a 4- bedroom house and charge per bed. No privacy, no space, tent still too expensive for that, but as there is demand, these also go.like hot fresh buns. And mostly foreigners who don't know their rights get exploited. Great of you to mention where people can get advice on their rights.this o for should ne more out there, so landlords don't get away with illegal stuff and taking advabtage of tenants anymore
This is not an issue of greedy landlords. It's an issue of a completely over-regulated housing market. Socialist policies lie at the base of which. It's not unique to Paris, the same issues can be found in major cities around the world that operate on socialist principles. Over-regulation creates black markets, once they're in place, they control prices. Everyone becomes a scofflaw to survive. How many times do people have to relearn this lesson?
Great research Lucile. Very interesting slice of history and life in one of the worlds greatest cities. Just one request if I may: Can you please incorporate a few more french words? The way you say arrondissement is just fabulous!
I lived in Thailand in 2022 and I found that my 250 sq ft studio apartment was really too big, lots of wasted space. My cousins in the 11e have a chambre de bonne and use it as an office. I thought at one time of asking them to let me rent it, but I didn't want them to feel obligated. But I'd live in 150 sq ft if that means I could live in Paris!
When I vacated my chambre de bonne in Paris (9m2 - would probably be 5m2 loi carré) there was a waiting list of people who wanted to take it. It finally went to a young Sri-Lanken man who was a cook in the restaurant next door - saving him the pain of living outside Paris and spending hours each day on trains - but though he was small and slender himself, he moved in with his sister, who was, well anything but. There was a tiny sink where I could wash my face and armpits with some effort, the toilet was on the landing between the top two floors, and shared by everyone, and there was a gym a few streets away where I could sometimes take a shower.
Are these apartment's protected by the government against renovations? If not, what is stopping someone with a lot of money from buying 3 or 4 units and renovating them into 1 large unit and charging even more money for rent?
We had the same quarters for staff in Denmark. Old buildings in the city today have chosen to make them into storages though, no one lives up there anymore ❤
I stayed in one of these when I was travelling in Paris by myself. Tiny room with a single bed and a small shower and sink with a shared toilet down the hall. Great views from my window. Beautiful building and it actually had an elevator that was obviously added on a long time after it was built. The elevator was also very tiny with just enough room for one person and a very small suitcase. The building had an amazing bar on the first floor and little market right across the street of the entrance and a bakery a couple of doors down. A great location with a fifteen-minute walk to the Eiffel Tower and best of all about 30 euros a night to stay.
My closet alone is 4 times bigger!! I have stayed in some roof top places in Paris. They were perfect for one person and fully self contained. I am thankful that I own my home out right.
I visited a local young person in one of these angle ceiling Paris bedsit in 1982 - it was about 5sqm or 54 sqft - basically a single mattress and standing room beside it - a bathroom was shared somewhere else. I thought it was great for low rent in the middle of Paris ! Only sixth floor - plenty of exercise so you probably only want to go out and come back once a day ...
get informed, im a frenchman retired in a little town, no more doctors or dentists anymore, so am very happy i kept a 15 sq meter room in Paris , there i don't need a car , i just walk across the street for almost every convenience... "no country for old men" . People who have to go to work very early cannot rely on trains, crammed , stressful , often delayed
I've asked this before on other Paris TH-cam sites: What if the apartment building catches fire? Where are the fire escapes? The available extinguishers? The posted escape routes? Are fire sprinklers installed? Are city fire codes specific to these apartments? Smoke detectors installed? Frequent Fire Department inspections? Etc....
I would think the exercise needed to get up to the 6th floor is GOOD for old people. In China some buildings are 15 stories with no elevators. Stair climbing is very good for you as it uses the largest muscles in your body. But it would be a nightmare to move something up there. Then again they can't afford to buy anything!
Don't know about that. I broke my foot about fifteen years ago. Most of the time the elevator was out of service. (The landlord was not very good and the city 🏙️ would not enforce the laws.) Climbing 🪜 four flights with a broken 🦶 foot, crutches and groceries was a misery.😢
Wrong. Their bones and joints become more frail as they age, and stair climbing takes a terrible toll on the knees. Being old and living there must be positively hellish. 😢 It's sad people take such a dismissive, flippant attitde toward the elderly.
@@LauraTheRed I would blame lethargy. if you exercise it keeps your joints in better shape, more fluid. Now of course the problem with stairs is if you feel pain you still have to go up eventually to get home. At the end of the day we'd all be better off if we used the elevator a lot less.
In Singapore, a tiny government-subsidized public housing apartment of 38metres square, a lease of 99 years (means u have to surrender the house back to government and its zero value after 99 years), is now priced at SGD150,000.00 ie Euro106,350.00 .. it is located at the far east north of the country, far away from the central of the country. If it is located nearer to the central of the country, the apartment of the same size will cost $300,000.00 ie Euro222,000.00 The above are new apartment and the wait time for it build is 4-5 years... It would be doubled the prices if it is resale, means you can buy it instantly (pre-owned)..
In Paris, where the Seine flows free, Lives a girl named Lucile, as sweet as can be. With a camera in hand, she captures the light, Sharing Parisian dreams, day and night. From cobblestone streets to the Eiffel's grand view, Lucile's videos bring Paris to you. Her laughter, her charm, in every frame, A city of love, forever the same. With each upload, she paints a scene, Of life in Paris, so vibrant and serene. Lucile, the muse of the city's embrace, In her videos, we find our place 👍❤.
The key issue is that landmark status and protected sight lines don't allow to rebuild any higher. Most buildings can't be higher then 7 or 9 floors. While for a fact Paris needs far more city center housing being at least 12 to 18 floors high.
There's historically a limit of height of buildings in Paris. But our fucking mayor has chosen to ignore it with her delirious projects. NOT ANY PARISIAN want skycrappers and other "las vegas" gigantic pyramid style.
@@afficionada1103 Not sure I buy this argument as Paris already has this.. La Defense is awash with many seriously high-rise towers and they look fabulous and nobody panics because theres a big high-rise district - Actually seems very coherent the the french passion and flair for technology and futurism to me
The are some applications where not being able to see out a window is a good thing - where you don't want distractions from a thing you are working on. That room at 7:15 would actually be really good office or _atelier_ for a writer or artist. It has a bit of natural light but you don't have a view drawing your attention.
Ok there are 130 000 "chambres de bonnes" in Paris but only 50% are less than 9 m2 and there are 1 300 000 flats. Most of them are larger than 20 m2. And don't forget that 25% of parisian flats are social housing.
00:55 Twenty three people cannot fit in a 55 sqft space. Also, this is not too small a size for one person to use as a bathroom by any architectural standard. My own bathroom is slightly less than this and I'm able to manage just fine.
I've heard of 2 tatami size rooms for rent in Japan which is about 3.3 square meters. Usually for students in a shared housing. Because it's tatami, you lay your futon and sleep on the floor. Basically, just large enough for a desk and you sleep with your feet under the desk on the floor. The good thing is these are usually two story buildings so few stairs, and easy to clean. Shared toilet and go to a public bath for full body cleaning. Sometimes, the landlord offers meals. Basically a small dorm room. Just watch out for roaches and centipedes sleeping on the floor.
This seems like an issue driven further by the fact most well paying large companies are based in Paris, like Seoul but less extreme. I cant really think of any other large industry in France bigger in another region than Paris off the top of my head other than Aviation in Toulouse.
Wow this was very informative. I never knew about this and the history of those buildings. Thanks for sharing your insight. For sure subbed you because I really love come to visit Paris. Honestly I wouldn’t mind that a Airb&b option. That teacher is smart spending $450 for a month that’s cheap. I feel like for a cheap travel option it’s not bad considering that the other option is to get a hotel that will probably be $450 a week. So I think this wouldn’t be a bad temporary option
This type of room/living accommodation is described in Diane Johnson’s novel Le Divorce. The main character goes to stay with her sister who lives in Paris and she’s shocked to be put in a maid’s room where she must share a toilet & go downstairs to take showers in her sister’s apartment.
Haussmann is the best name ever for someone who built houses.
I had not even noticed. In french you'd think of it more like the sound of words such as hostel or hostile.
😂😂😂😂
😄
I thought the very same 😂
except those things aren't houses...
The housing crisis in major cities has gone absolutely insane. Everyone I know is close to their mid-30s and living with family, roommates, or a significant other, which is wonderful when it's what you CHOOSE to do. But it's incredibly frustrating when you HAVE to. I recently moved to the countryside with my family, but you just don't have the accessibility to things that major cities have. Thank you again for such an insightful video! I saw your current apartment tour and it's such a lovely space! ☺
They issue is that they don't allow building much higher then that. They would need 12 to 15 stories high buildings to cover demand.
I'm also an ex-city dweller 5Paris, then Brussels) who now is a happy "refugee" in the countryside. I live in a 3-bedroom, 150 sq.meters house with a 600 sq.meters garden, with a view to nearby forests and moutains, for the price of a small one-bedroom apartment, smaller than my living room, in some neighborhoods of Paris. As for the accessibility of things... yes, you cannot live where I live without a car (public transportation being both scarce and impractical), yes there are less commodities than in town but I've realized that I just didn't need most of them. I still have two supermarkets at a short five to ten-minute driving distance, and a good baker in the village, as well as a medical center with a physician, a physiotherapist and a lab for blood tests, X-rays, and scanner... the essential amenities. And we have a large enough shopping mall only 20 kms away if needed. And I've made more friends here in five years than during 25 years in my previous life. I now go to the cities only if I need to, and it's like being on another planet; there's no way I'd know leave "my" countryside (the real countryside, not a suburban town, fake-countryside fake-city).
@@paxundpeace9970 There are enough empty apartments in Paris. Here that's not a case of housing crisis but a case of people not from Paris, who can't afford living in Paris and accept all the living conditions. The average Parisian doesn't live like that and real Parisians don't even consider living like that.
@@jfrancobelge I'm considered a similar but less dramatic move, but why did make more friends?
People who choose to live in the countryside, don’t appreciate, understandably, the impact that is caused by the sector of the “urban” population, who currently, are moving to the countryside, not out of choice, but because they can’t afford anything else.
We stayed in one of these tiny apartments via AirB&B for a week. This explains the extremely cramped, crooked and steep stairs to get to the room. I couldn’t imagine anyone really living in it for any length of time. Very interesting video.
Reason not to let ur self get weak and obese.
I stayed in several of these when homelidays was around. one of them had a spiral staircase entrance that was like cave exploring making me claustrophobic (and Im just 5.5 foot tall and thin) but the location was good 4th ar near the subway
Maids' rooms and servants!! That kind of thing would be unspeakable today outside of France, say in Australia or the U.S., where nobody is a servant of anyone.
I recall another one of Lucile's videos where she talked about why people in France act the way they do. There was a segment about customer service, how people in France don't want to be "treated like servants." It makes sense, that there was a group of people historically, that played the role of servants.
Only young people can do that. Once you are hitting 40s, you will most likely fall out of love with tiny spaces.
you are lucky you can use AirBnB, since they ban people! They ban us for speaking up against all the "mass immigration", etc.
Whenever I'm starting to feel frustrated with the small amount of space I have I watch one of those videos about tiny apartments in Paris or Tokyo and then I feel so grateful for my 23sqm apartment in Germany. I have a small kitchen with two stovetops and a mini oven, a sofa that can be turned into a bed within seconds, a small fridge, some shelves, a drawer, a clothes rack, a small bathroom with a washer dryer and even a few houseplants
Well arent' you a F ray of sunshine?! PS: Nobody like a braggard! I bet people aren't lininhg up to pick you as a friend, but what else can you expect of the callous Germans?! Not tact or diplomacy, that's for sure!
Sounds like you have a great home; space isn't everything when you live in an awesome city. For us Americans, a studio is usually closer to 400 square feet, or just over 37 square meters, and it ALWAYS has a private bathroom plus kitchenette with refrigerator, stovetop, sink and microwave. Everything in America is "new" compared with Europe; "old" to us is buildings constructed in the 1940s or 50s. Any place without a private bathroom is typically called a "hostle" and is only rented on a day-to-day basis.
Why I'm so grateful to live in the US I love in a good city make over 6 figures and live in a 2500 SQ ft apt. This is insane. Not even NYC is this destitute.
@@jmccoomber1659exactly America is that girl and the more I travel and see how ppl love I come back kissing the ground of the country we built.
@@NB-nh2sf I'll one up you, brand new 3500sq feet, 6 acres in rural-ish northwest NJ. I could NEVER live in a city, or an apartment, the noises the smells, etc etc... no thanks. yeah def grateful,
the problem is also not just the size but the quality like u said. some people might choose to live small, but if there’s mold, no toilet or other problems, thqt can be bad for health
Look at Hong Kong now, apartments that had one family have been divided up, now it's basically a 'room is your apartment' and you share the toilet and bathroom with your 'neighbours "!!
Years ago I visited some relatives in Paris. My cousin and I went to go pick up her boyfriend to go shopping one time, and he lived in one of these "maid's room" apartments. As an American, I was shocked at how tiny and cramped it was. However, it had an _amazing_ view of the city. Thanks, Haussmann!
As a nurse in the UK, during lock down, I made a mad decision to buy an old, but well kept caravan to live in, off grid, on a farm, probablythe size of these apartments. The biggest issue was, if things break down, they were monumentally expensive to repair. So if someone is good at fixing stuff, you will fare much better than me. Or if you can afford a newer caravan, again, it's worth it. And if their are 2 of you, I highly recommend having an awning for a big of space apart. This aside, my little home was all I needed. I was happy there, I certainly didn't feel cramped. And living around farm animals and nature was great for my mental health! I noticed that a lot of men were intrigued by my lifestyle and were quite envious!!
That sounds so awesome! Do you ever consider maybe doing a TH-cam channel about your tiny home space. I think the most intriguing thing about living in a tiny space like a caravan, is that it actually makes for bigger living because you’re able to live in more spacious places. If that makes any sense.
You have a great attitude! I lived on a 28 foot boat for 5 years and loved it.
What’s a caravan?
I think that's why the 'tiny home' boom has happened in America..
@@pionus3651 It's European for travel trailer...a camper that you pull behind your car.
That’s it… tonight I’m putting our bed in our bathroom 😅
😂
please provide an update to your experience. :D
😂
I Had One ...
@@ANTIAVISOSPORFIN-ii1cu maid room?
No matter how small. If you have a home of your own to live in count your blessings. Remember there are so many out there without a home having to live on the streets, in their cars or in shelters. Thank God and practice gratitude because a tiny apartment is better than no apartment. 💯
Well said! Wish more people understood that
..... 👍👍👍
looks so stunning from the outside until you see what is it to be like on the inside,,,, truly claustrophobic living in there....
So grateful that you mention that housing rights do exist, and super impressed that you included an offiicial link! Thanks on behalf of the world!
Housing crisis in the last few years has gone insane. I'm in Australia, by miracle timing I bought my first home at the end of 2018, it was among the cheapest on the market in my city but it's solid and modern enough built in 2005. Currently spending 25% of my income on the mortgage payment, but if I am to instead rent this house today, the rent would take up about 60-70% of my income (I make slightly above median income). No bank would even think of giving a home loan to me to I try buying my house at it's current value, it's near doubled since I bought it. Had I not bought my house in 2018, my income level would only allows me to rent either a very small mouldy unit or studio apartment, or just one room of a shared house or apartment (forget buying, literally nothing within 50km of the city is in price range for my income), both options would still cost more than my current mortgage payments.
I am glad you bought a house right on time before prices increased.
How long do you have left to service the mortgage?
@@transhusbando4233 It was 30 years term starting 6 years ago. but I've managed to take advantage of the lowest interest rates 4 years ago to pay off extra as much as I could, so maybe 18 years left.
I'm glad to hear from someone who isn't or at least doesn't seem judgy and condescending toward people who weren't able to do this but is just sympathetic.
❤ 1:24 not a lot of buildings but many buildings… destroyed
I live in Madrid at the moment and the situation is getting worse each year. More and more people are moving to big European cities when there is actually a pretty incredible and effective solution we all tested during the pandemic called : remote work. So many companies exceeded their targets, so many people could move back to small towns and find better ways to balance work and their personal lives. Governments instead of giving large companies tax deductions for each employee that is hired with a remote contract decided instead to cooperate with this companies to stop this remote work from spreading. But I still believe it is the best way to stop gentrification.
Or increase it…. Lots of quaint cute towns in Canada had mass amounts of remote workers move in now that they didn’t have to live in the cities, and then they wanted to gentrify these little towns. It’s like in Beetlejuice when the dad wants to turn the little town into the city he just moved away from. They drove up housing prices and drove out local families who had lived there for generations. Go back to the city!
It’s all about real estate, and preserving the profits from leasing space in massive office buildings that have no other reason for their existence. CEOs live separate lives from us plebes, but they’re not loners - they hang out together. And a RE CEO tells his Tech CEO buddy that if his buildings empty out, his RE company’s stock price tanks, and there goes their twice weekly golf game, there goes his yacht, and the annual multi-family trip to the Seychelles isn’t happening. Tech CEO issues an RTO order the next day, in the face of all logic - other than the logic of the market.
@@shinyshinythings I completely agree, and I’d add that CEOs aren’t just hanging out with each other-they’re also closely tied to politicians. Politicians are deeply involved in these business deals and investments, yet they go out in public and point fingers, saying things like, “These greedy corporations, BlackRock, and CEOs are the bad guys keeping you poor and rents high.” Meanwhile, they’re all in it together, protecting their shared interests. And here we are, stuck fighting over right-wing vs. left-wing nonsense, while the real power players work behind the scenes to keep the system rigged in their favor.
@@shinyshinythingsit’s a big club. And you ain’t in it.
George Carlin
People are fed up of remote work
Oh my, that is bad even at best of times, but I can't even begin to imagine what it must have been like during the Covid lockdown, when (in France) people had to stay in their flats and couldn't even go outside at all!! 😲 Totally clautrophobic... I would totally have gone insane.
And they knew the lockdowns were useless too, makes you realise what we are to them.
The plight of all cities: insanely expensive closet-sized homes you can barely turn your butt in.
The cities have become the ugly stepsisters.
With only a three day supply of food and fuel not places I would like to be if the shtf its why I moved remote rural off grid a decade or so ago.
@@TheSilmarillian I live rurally too, although not off-grid, but the simple fact of even considering living in a city now makes me feel like the air is being choked out of me.
Interesting turn of phrase!
No wonder they're nuts....
I moved out of Warsaw - the capital of Poland, where housing prices is also very high.
I bought a small flat in cash, and have 30 minutes by car or train to some bigger city, although there's also work around here. I just don't like the culture in smaller cities. I used to spend an hour up to 2 hours to get to work in Warsaw, so 30 minutes is not that bad in comparison.
Paris has a strong focus on protecting the rights of people with limited resources. However, despite these protections, there seems to be little effort to address the housing crisis, with many complaining but not taking significant action. This is especially notable in this city known for luxury brands like Chanel and Dior.
Yes, because you can't fight a black market with laws for law-abiders. Welcome to life under a socialist regime.
The real reason behind Haussmann's project: not just health, but mostly the fact that the larger the street, the harder it is to install blockades.
Valid observation indeed.
And the faster it is for the police and/or the army to get on site if/when there is any trouble anyway...
This is a very big reason for the changes in Paris
It is in Vienna, Austria, the same. Wide alleys, to prevent barricades and make shooting easier.
These are NOT apartments; they're rooms.
Exactly. The maid’s room was really just a place for her to sleep, change clothes and wait for her employer to summon her. 🫤
They are Shitholes to be honest
They're not rooms they cupboards.
Cupboards
'
They can be cupboards but hey the view of Paris out of the window is ace!
Thank you SO much for explaining!!! I went to Paris and wandered the streets but could not understand the "canyon" feeling of identical tall buildings or the reason! Now I know! Thank you! By the way-your video showed the restaurant where I had dinner, a couple glasses of French wine while experiencing Paris! A truly "Bucket list" experience! THANK YOU!!!
When I was young, i used to live in rented bedsits with shared bathrooms and kitchens, but this was a cheap way to live, and you wouldn't have bought the room as an individual unit, it would be solt as part of a flat or house. I'm in Scotland , housing here is in a terrible state - so expensive and hard to get. Then councils 3nd up housing homeless people in expensive bed and breakfasts which are of course paid for by the state.good for the landlords but no one else. The problem is not just in large cities - it' s country wide -but is probably at its worst in Edinburgh. Ive heard of working people living in the youth hostel, which is only meant to be temporary accommodation for travellers, and what you get is a bed in a dormitory. We're regressing to the nineteenth century. Landlords can make much more money by letting to holidaymakers and ( in the case of Edinburgh) festival performers than locals.
I stayed several times with a friend who lived in Paris many years ago, in the 13th Arr. It was in a typical mid-19th century building, with a courtyard and no elevator. His apartment was actually reasonably sized and on a middle floor, but the kitchen was tiny and the bathroom microscopic and clearly tacked-on at some point so the residents wouldn't have to use the common bathroom in the hallway (and so the common bathroom could be incorporated into one or more of the subdivided apartments. There was also this odd hot water heater, so clearly the building had no steam or hot water, just cold running water (that may or may not have been original, not sure).
It was a bit of an adjustment at first, especially the bathroom, but it wasn't so bad and I could see living there for a few years on a student or low wage worker's budget. I've certainly lived in "challenging" apartments when I was younger. And it's part of that whole La Boheme starving artist/student/worker experience. Years later, after he got married and moved into a larger and modern apartment in the banlieu with his wife, and I stayed with them several times, I actually kind of missed it, both the apartment itself and its location not far from central Paris. I'm not the sort of person who needs a lot of space or luxury to be comfortable, just a clean, well-heated, fairly quiet place, with some sort of view even if its of the building across the street and maybe some trees and sky if you stick your head out.
It's not romantic, why do you set such low standards for yourself?
@@romancetips365 Some struggle and sacrifice early in life builds character and makes you appreciate the better things in life, and allows you to save some money for later on in life, so living in less desirable places in your 20's might not be "romantic", but it does have certain advantages. And you're best able to tolerate it at that point in your life as well. Not everyone has a high-paying job or rich parents.
I'm french and I lived in Paris for 27 years. People are not forced to live in these appartments, they can choose to live in bigger places just outside paris for the same kind of rent. But they still want to live in Paris.
So… yes, they’re forced. Because they want to live in Paris - likely near their work, friends, family, but are obstructed from doing so by over-population, rich people with too-large spaces, and artificially inflated rents. If you can’t live in a decent amount of space for a decent amount of money in the place where you want to live then, yes, you’re forced to take what you can get or forced to leave where you want to live. Not complicated.
Chisle25, Are you just missing the point on purpose out of spitefulness?
Yes, if you want to live in the centre of one of the most beautiful cities in the world, instead of in the suburbs, you will probably have to pay a fortune in rent!
@madnessintomagic Nope. If you want to live in a chambre de bonne in Paris, rather than in a studio a few miles away from Paris, that's a choice. As long as people will be willing to make that choice, rents won't go down!
@chisle25 that's not how gentrification works. The second enough people move to the outskirts; the rich will increase the rest there also.
Although I have no plans to live in Paris, but this is very informative and interesting. Thanks for sharing!
Great video Lucile. I am a Californian who just visited Paris last week and I have been binge watching your vidoes since I got back home. I love how you have found your niche from a Travel Vlog channel to now Parisian Lifestyle channel.
You visited Paris??? I would be petrified to go there, due to all the mass immigration, taking over the culture! It is not safe! Haven't you seen the tons of videos about this??
The housing crisis in California is getting this bad. My whole family is shoved into one room, and all our stuff is in one shed because we can't afford our own place. I had to get rid of pretty much everything I owned except the most important because I have a child. We need affordable housing for families OR better-paying jobs.
So interesting! I studied in Paris in 1989-90 and was crestfallen when I did not get the chambre de bonne I wanted in the 17th that was so beautiful and romantic. But I ended up renting a nice bedroom and bathroom in a large apartment right by Mo Corentin Celton for 1,800 FF/month. It worked out. Paris apartments are a passion for me. Every time I go to Paris, which is about once a year, I come home wanting to buy an apartment in Paris. I'm close to retirement now, and I think if I bought something in France, I'd be better off in Nice where it's warmer. Thanks for your research and for your excellent English!
@@nycp1969 I lived in a chambre de bonne in the 17th in ‘88 and ‘89. My balcony was larger than my room and in the warmer months I would put my mattress on it and sleep outside. Most of the other chambre de bonne’s were empty. There was one guy on my floor with whom I shared a Turkish toilet. Thankfully he kept it immaculately clean.
@@annawinkel6509 Yikes! I'd not have wanted to use a Turkish toilet, much less share one. I had my own bathroom and a large bedroom with a B&W TV. I watched Happy Days and Who's the Boss dubbed into French. The apartment I was in was an ugly 1970s building. It killed me to take it, but time was running out on my temporary stay in the Foyer des Etudiantes. I was an etudiant, and boys were only allowed prior to the start of the fall term.
The 17th is maybe my 4th favorite arrt., after the 15th, 16th and 7th in that order.
@ I mostly waited until I was downstairs in the apartment of the family I worked for - my Canadian friend was over once and had to use it and she actually said she preferred it to the regular one on her floor because it was so clean. She shared a floor with a lot of students and she said her bathroom was always dirty. My room only had room for a single bed and an armoire from IKEA. My balcony was surprisingly large.
@@annawinkel6509 Turkish toilets are so hard for women. I was in Paris for the first time as a teenager with my mother and grandmother, who was a really good sport about using one in a cafe when she was almost 70. Such great memories. I wonder if there's a forum for Americans who studied in Paris. We're a group with very similar experiences that are very special to us.
00:50 I thought she was going to say, "things were so bad that even as I was studying I got sick! "😂😂😂
Encore une fois, une présentation informative et instructive. Merci Bcp ...
I really enjoy your real-life videos. Feel free to make them longer, because they're fantastic. 😄 🇫🇷
Thank you!!
I remember reading that because of those chambres du bonne Paris is in, like, top 3 places for heatwave related deaths in western world, cause you got a teeny tiny space with a sheet of metal on top
These tiny apartments in Paris make the capsule hotels I stayed in when I visited Tokyo and Osaka look like mansions.
I was very interested to watch this video because I know that it’s concern as there are more heat waves in Europe - there’s no way to insulate one of these if it hasn’t been made larger, so it can get very, very hot next to the metal roof
I would install insulation personally
Your video is very informative. Keep up the good work. Thank you.
I never knew how small apartments there in Paris, France 🇫🇷 are these days. Thanks for sharing, Lucile, and I think Paris is a beautiful city! ❤
Thank you so much for being here :)
@LucileHR You're Welcome Lucile I enjoy your videos.
Most appartment are not that small. But there are expensives.
@@languerouge5385 They aren't for the Parisians most of them earning enough to rent them or being granted the social housing (25% of the housing park), housing pension (17% of the Parisians), and the cheap apartments people get through their work. Those leaving Paris are those who can afford living in Paris.
We stayed in a one bedroom apartment for 10 days for $180 per night. It’s located in St Germaine de Pres across from Cafe de Flore. It has elevator. Has a pull out couch in the living room, kitchen and dining area. It was beautiful and clean. It was perfect. It was a walking distance to the great sights in Paris. Perfect for 4 people . I would stay there again.
Great video!
We lived in the Auteuil area of the 16eme for 3 years in the early 2000s in a 6th floor apartment that was around 100 sq. m. This was the top floor of the normal apartments and the maid's rooms were on the next floor -- there was a door in the kitchen that went to the service stairway mentioned in the video. Our landlord's family had owned this apartment for decades and lived there for many years. All the apartment owners had a maid's room on the 7th floor and were generally renting them. At some point our landlord has bought a 2nd maid's room and managed to swap with other owners for the 2 maid's rooms directly above his apartment. He then has a circular hole cut in the ceiling of his apartment and installed a spiral staircase from the interior hallway of his apartment to the double sized maid's room on the next floor created by removing the wall between the 2 room he owned there. This created a charming guest room/den on the upper floor which faced towards the western suburbs with a beautiful view and usually had a good breeze it the summer.. It was a big selling point for out lease.
We have heard that has since sold the apartment and it is no longer on the rental market. The rent was high, but we were getting expat allowances from my wife's employer who helped with the paperwork.
Always great videos and so informative. Thanks again, from expensive London :)
This is a very interesting contribution. Thanks for all you have invested! Cheers!
I live in a tiny house (325 Square feet) in California, it feels spacious now! Also, I too can shower and cook at the same time
This video makes me feel so grateful for the 55 sq metre apartment i have here in England .....You see, i have always envied my friends, most of whom live in 150-200 sq metre houses
Same! I live in 60sqm in Australia and people look down on me. I find it to be plenty of space
If the buildings are solid, then it would be easy to combine two or more units into more livable spaces and add elevators, insulation, and new HVAC systems.
The upper floor was usually for the maids and maintenace workers. The communal wash room was on the ground floor in the courtyard . They were still in use until the 1990's that I used. They then had a toilet for 40+ apartments and it was always occupied.
In many US cities tiny apartments are becoming quite common. For example in Seattle on the US west coast, there are many new apartment buildings containing only 150-180 sq. ft (14-17 sq. meters) apartments. These apartments are studios with a small bathroom and some cooking facilities (1-2 element counter top stove, sink, small refrigerator, and most of the time a microwave). The bathroom is included in the apartment size. Such small studio apartments generally rent for $1,000 to $1,250 per month, but the rent can be quite a bit higher if the apartment is in a desirable location or has a nice view.
This seems insane to me because when I was at university I rented a 50 square meter one bedroom apartment in Seattle with a water and mountain view for $95 per month and the utilities (water, electricity, heat) were included in the rent.
$95 a month, free u's?? Yeah,. Right. You forgot to say the year was 1879!
@@1Channel1 Not quite that long ago. 1972
I rent a 220 sq ft microflat in L.A. Ten foot ceiling and two big south-facing windows! It's an old hotel building. Due to rent control, I pay a bit over $700 with all utilities included. New tenants pay up to $1150. I have golden handcuffs- if I move, I lose all my tenure.
Investor$$$$$$ They are ruining everything.
@@AmaltheaVimes Yes, indeed. This should be looked into. It's kind of like ticket scalping, except it's not a luxury... it's a necessity.
Thanks for posting. I always wondered about the Mansard style Paris buildings and didn't know of the structure with each floor serving a particular type of occupant. So pretty on the outside, now I know what goes on behind the windows.
I live in Tebriz and the standard normal apartment size in the city is around 100 m2 . Living in such circumstances as in Paris would be a total nightmare for me. God help you Parisians all with this housing crisis.
I hope more Iranians watch videos like this so that if any more of them think about migrating to the West, they'll know what's in store for them when they get here. Mass migration to the West is a factor in the housing crisis.
если смотреть в России, то такие квартиры характерны для Москвы и Петербурга. В Петербурге до сих пор очень много коммуналок с комнатами по 10-20 кв.м. так что те, кто получил квартиры от государства со времен Хрущева очень повезло! у нас 58 кв.м. 3 комнаты
Anything I want to know about France this is the channel to watch.
Thank you!!
@@LucileHR Your channel is really great! Love from a German who has fallen in love with Paris.
Loved your video, Lucile! Great research, loads of good information and as an American, I really appreciate how wonderful your English is. Very understandable for us North American weirdos who even have trouble understanding Brits (and we supposedly speak the same language).
This is mainly typical of Paris I'd say. Lucile very correctly underlines in general renters are very privileged and protected under french law and each year more. This is compared to other countries. It has lead to the housingcrisis, tenants ( propriety owners) preferring to rent very shortterm air bn b instead of longterm.
Law allows renters with the usual 3 year lease to leave with only 1 or 2 months notice. The owner however can only give notice for the date the lease is ending and only if it is to be sold or if he is going to live there himself. Unfortunately the maffioso " kitchen in shower bedsits" landlords in Paris don't reflect the overall misery of many otherones, more attentive to their renter's wellbeing ;-)
I lived in a chambre de bonne in the 6th, also on a peniche in the 7th on Seine, and also in a studio on Île de la Cité.
The chambre de bonne wasn't so great for hosting parties😹😹
The peniche was the best 🍷🍷👏👏👏👏
I lived in one of these gorgeous apartments with the servants staircase. I was a nanny and one day I decided to look behind a bunch of laundry equipment after noticing the door. Then I went on a little adventure finding my way down the unkept and very unused staircase all the way to the courtyard below. I wish I'd known then what it was really for ;p
I've just found this excellent and informative channel ✨👌
is there any other word apart from super? It's for the super rich, for the super poor, these are super tiny and the walls are super thin and in the summer it gets super hot....omg...its super tiring...
This building design is actually pretty ingenious. Created mixed housing is a major issue. Builders want the most money, so they tend to build the fancy apartments only, but you really need middle and working class people in cities and they need affordable housing. When they get priced out, you wind up with massive commuter communities, where poorer people who work in cities live far from them and have to spend hours commuting in. Which then leads to worker shortages. Which can then lead to a collapse of the city, since the rich people don't want to live there if there are no people to support the amenities they want. It's interesting to me that stairs made mixed housing de facto.
Videos like this are good, it helps people see the realities of the city life, it’s not as romantic as people would think. I’ve become disillusioned by the city life a long time ago. I prefer a few close friends in my life in a rural place I can settle down. Nothing wrong with living the simple life, if you are able to.
This is basically feudal renteering
You say it like that's a bad thing?
Bro just vote for the next wave of mass migration again, that will show the elites who the real boss is!
No it's just modern day socialism, and all its expected outcomes. Black markets and all. The more regulated it becomes, the worse it will get. Black market controls the margins which determines all the prices. They've done it to themselves through pure ignorance. Many other global cities as well.
That was soooo interesting 😊 thank you! I am absolutely in love with Paris architecture and always wondered what’s like to live in one of these buildings!
I don’t envy people living in Europe. When I travel, everything is tiny, including the trash can in the bathrooms. I’m so happy to come back to TX, to my big house.
Yeah big asses over sized guts all the various illnesses with obesity 😂😂
Exactly. Europeans spend so much time critizing Americans when they should focus more on their own problems.
OTOH Europeans don't fear medical bankruptcy when they get sick.
But in Europe you can live cheaply in the city centre...
@@cooledcannon Compared to average salaries in France, the UK or Lisbon, Portugal, it isn't cheap. It's only cheap if you have an American salary.
These apartments are substandard, but still better than ending up on the street. Still, there are real problems with this system and it sounds like there are real needs for reforms of these short term contracts, even if they still allow these to be rented on a short term basis.
Can't believe how people get used to it 😕
Yes, sometimes because they don't have a choice :(
It's called life where the black market dominates. The inevitable outcome of over-regulation and socialist policies. People just refuse to learn from history.
OMG. About 40 years ago, I had the privilege of being invited to a Tunisian’s apartment which was as you described. I was in awe of how small the place was. This video reminded me of that moment. So 40 years later I find out what that was all about. Great video. Thank you.
BTW. I’m retired now and have an unusual situation that makes me live in several countries. Home in the US is fully paid for. No monthly expenditure to the banks or a landlord. BUT. Property taxes are the same as rent. About $900 every quarter for my place. I saw on some tax papers property taxes of $27,000 per year. What???
Tiny living spaces being available isn't the same as people being "forced" to live in them. Another way of expressing it is that people are allowed to live in them, whereas in many cities they are not an option, and the poor can't live there at all.
For a while, I did live in the old town of Bern. The apartment was 20 meters long, 2 meters high and 2.5 meters wide, with public stairs in the middle (had to go "outside" between the kitchen and the bedroom). Of course, very dark and no sun. This is how people lived before us.
I always wonder, why they do.not combine two chambre de bonne together, space wise. Still.tight enough. In Ireland there we're often greedy landlords too, putting bunk beds in every room of a 4- bedroom house and charge per bed. No privacy, no space, tent still too expensive for that, but as there is demand, these also go.like hot fresh buns. And mostly foreigners who don't know their rights get exploited. Great of you to mention where people can get advice on their rights.this o for should ne more out there, so landlords don't get away with illegal stuff and taking advabtage of tenants anymore
This is not an issue of greedy landlords. It's an issue of a completely over-regulated housing market. Socialist policies lie at the base of which. It's not unique to Paris, the same issues can be found in major cities around the world that operate on socialist principles. Over-regulation creates black markets, once they're in place, they control prices. Everyone becomes a scofflaw to survive. How many times do people have to relearn this lesson?
I purchased the suitcase and can't wait to receive it ~ thank you!
Is there a reason that someone wouldn't take like three of those tiny apartments and remove walls to make bigger?
If they had the money to do that wouldn't they just live in a larger place to begin with?
Price.
Someone else in the comments said they live in one that used to be three chambres de bonne.
Great research Lucile. Very interesting slice of history and life in one of the worlds greatest cities.
Just one request if I may: Can you please incorporate a few more french words? The way you say arrondissement is just fabulous!
I lived in Thailand in 2022 and I found that my 250 sq ft studio apartment was really too big, lots of wasted space. My cousins in the 11e have a chambre de bonne and use it as an office. I thought at one time of asking them to let me rent it, but I didn't want them to feel obligated. But I'd live in 150 sq ft if that means I could live in Paris!
Absolutely! There's many nice tiny apartments in Paris too!
When I vacated my chambre de bonne in Paris (9m2 - would probably be 5m2 loi carré) there was a waiting list of people who wanted to take it.
It finally went to a young Sri-Lanken man who was a cook in the restaurant next door - saving him the pain of living outside Paris and spending hours each day on trains - but though he was small and slender himself, he moved in with his sister, who was, well anything but. There was a tiny sink where I could wash my face and armpits with some effort, the toilet was on the landing between the top two floors, and shared by everyone, and there was a gym a few streets away where I could sometimes take a shower.
I thought Paris apartments were tiny, but then I saw a show on Japanese tiny apartments!!!
They are not the norm. Most Japanese singles in Tokyo rent rooms upwards of 20sqm, bigger in the suburbs outside of the city centre.
Wow, fascinating! It's sad to see housing is as difficult there as it is in the USA.
Are these apartment's protected by the government against renovations? If not, what is stopping someone with a lot of money from buying 3 or 4 units and renovating them into 1 large unit and charging even more money for rent?
I know someone who did that actually. The tenants still need to climb 6 floors, but they have a bigger surface and a shower.
it's more profitable to rent 4 tiny rooms 400$ each than 1000$ for a single one .. simple .
We had the same quarters for staff in Denmark. Old buildings in the city today have chosen to make them into storages though, no one lives up there anymore ❤
Similar to some Asian cities like Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore etc
I stayed in one of these when I was travelling in Paris by myself. Tiny room with a single bed and a small shower and sink with a shared toilet down the hall. Great views from my window. Beautiful building and it actually had an elevator that was obviously added on a long time after it was built. The elevator was also very tiny with just enough room for one person and a very small suitcase. The building had an amazing bar on the first floor and little market right across the street of the entrance and a bakery a couple of doors down. A great location with a fifteen-minute walk to the Eiffel Tower and best of all about 30 euros a night to stay.
My closet alone is 4 times bigger!! I have stayed in some roof top places in Paris. They were perfect for one person and fully self contained. I am thankful that I own my home out right.
Thanks!
Thank you so much, appreciate you!
The radiating grand boulevards were designed for military control of Paris. Artillery could isolate. districts.
I visited a local young person in one of these angle ceiling Paris bedsit in 1982 - it was about 5sqm or 54 sqft - basically a single mattress and standing room beside it - a bathroom was shared somewhere else. I thought it was great for low rent in the middle of Paris ! Only sixth floor - plenty of exercise so you probably only want to go out and come back once a day ...
I had no idea people were legally required to live in Paris. I thought people lived there by choice. I learn more every day.
get informed, im a frenchman retired in a little town, no more doctors or dentists anymore, so am very happy i kept a 15 sq meter room in Paris , there i don't need a car , i just walk across the street for almost every convenience... "no country for old men" . People who have to go to work very early cannot rely on trains, crammed , stressful , often delayed
Very informatively clear video with a bit of history. Loved it! Thank you!😊
These look like luxury compared to the “coffin” apartments in Hong Kong I saw on TH-cam yesterday. All of it sad.
I've asked this before on other Paris TH-cam sites: What if the apartment building catches fire? Where are the fire escapes? The available extinguishers? The posted escape routes? Are fire sprinklers installed? Are city fire codes specific to these apartments? Smoke detectors installed? Frequent Fire Department inspections? Etc....
I would think the exercise needed to get up to the 6th floor is GOOD for old people. In China some buildings are 15 stories with no elevators. Stair climbing is very good for you as it uses the largest muscles in your body. But it would be a nightmare to move something up there. Then again they can't afford to buy anything!
Don't know about that. I broke my foot about fifteen years ago. Most of the time the elevator was out of service. (The landlord was not very good and the city 🏙️ would not enforce the laws.) Climbing 🪜 four flights with a broken 🦶 foot, crutches and groceries was a misery.😢
Wrong. Their bones and joints become more frail as they age, and stair climbing takes a terrible toll on the knees. Being old and living there must be positively hellish. 😢 It's sad people take such a dismissive, flippant attitde toward the elderly.
They move stuff into high floor apartments directly from the street, by means of electric ladders with platforms bolted on. It’s quite ingenious.
@@shinyshinythings That is incredible!
@@LauraTheRed I would blame lethargy. if you exercise it keeps your joints in better shape, more fluid. Now of course the problem with stairs is if you feel pain you still have to go up eventually to get home. At the end of the day we'd all be better off if we used the elevator a lot less.
In Singapore, a tiny government-subsidized public housing apartment of 38metres square, a lease of 99 years (means u have to surrender the house back to government and its zero value after 99 years), is now priced at SGD150,000.00 ie Euro106,350.00 .. it is located at the far east north of the country, far away from the central of the country. If it is located nearer to the central of the country, the apartment of the same size will cost $300,000.00 ie Euro222,000.00
The above are new apartment and the wait time for it build is 4-5 years...
It would be doubled the prices if it is resale, means you can buy it instantly (pre-owned)..
Waw..410€ for your own selfcontained flat....that's a dream here in London...Paris is really cheap...😅
I also understand why Disney Cinerella was so sad.
In Paris, where the Seine flows free, Lives a girl named Lucile, as sweet as can be. With a camera in hand, she captures the light, Sharing Parisian dreams, day and night.
From cobblestone streets to the Eiffel's grand view, Lucile's videos bring Paris to you. Her laughter, her charm, in every frame, A city of love, forever the same.
With each upload, she paints a scene, Of life in Paris, so vibrant and serene. Lucile, the muse of the city's embrace, In her videos, we find our place 👍❤.
haha love this!
@LucileHR Do the french live in small apartments? is it to save some space?
A.I. is a great poet
Thanks ChaGPT!
@@geovannymorajr.1065 It’s to save money.
Great video,très bonne vidéo 👍 Getting the same in Switzerland, like Zurich or Geneva
The key issue is that landmark status and protected sight lines don't allow to rebuild any higher. Most buildings can't be higher then 7 or 9 floors.
While for a fact Paris needs far more city center housing being at least 12 to 18 floors high.
It wouldn’t be Paris anymore, if the streets became endless sky high urban jungles
There's historically a limit of height of buildings in Paris. But our fucking mayor has chosen to ignore it with her delirious projects. NOT ANY PARISIAN want skycrappers and other "las vegas" gigantic pyramid style.
Almost no European wants that besides maybe the Brits
@@afficionada1103 Not sure I buy this argument as Paris already has this.. La Defense is awash with many seriously high-rise towers and they look fabulous and nobody panics because theres a big high-rise district - Actually seems very coherent the the french passion and flair for technology and futurism to me
@@MajorDrama1 I suppose, if done well..
The are some applications where not being able to see out a window is a good thing - where you don't want distractions from a thing you are working on. That room at 7:15 would actually be really good office or _atelier_ for a writer or artist. It has a bit of natural light but you don't have a view drawing your attention.
Ok there are 130 000 "chambres de bonnes" in Paris but only 50% are less than 9 m2 and there are 1 300 000 flats. Most of them are larger than 20 m2. And don't forget that 25% of parisian flats are social housing.
Less than 9m2 is forbidden by french law for living apartments. It's only legal for tourism renting.
Only 50%. Price is set on the margins of every market. Econ 101.
The apartments are so small even the mice are hunchback
00:55 Twenty three people cannot fit in a 55 sqft space. Also, this is not too small a size for one person to use as a bathroom by any architectural standard. My own bathroom is slightly less than this and I'm able to manage just fine.
I've heard of 2 tatami size rooms for rent in Japan which is about 3.3 square meters. Usually for students in a shared housing. Because it's tatami, you lay your futon and sleep on the floor. Basically, just large enough for a desk and you sleep with your feet under the desk on the floor. The good thing is these are usually two story buildings so few stairs, and easy to clean. Shared toilet and go to a public bath for full body cleaning. Sometimes, the landlord offers meals. Basically a small dorm room. Just watch out for roaches and centipedes sleeping on the floor.
And 20% of appartments in Paris are empty, what a shame...
This seems like an issue driven further by the fact most well paying large companies are based in Paris, like Seoul but less extreme. I cant really think of any other large industry in France bigger in another region than Paris off the top of my head other than Aviation in Toulouse.
You greatly expanded my limited knowledge of the apartment situation in Paris, Lucile. Well researched report. Merci.
Wow this was very informative. I never knew about this and the history of those buildings. Thanks for sharing your insight. For sure subbed you because I really love come to visit Paris. Honestly I wouldn’t mind that a Airb&b option. That teacher is smart spending $450 for a month that’s cheap. I feel like for a cheap travel option it’s not bad considering that the other option is to get a hotel that will probably be $450 a week. So I think this wouldn’t be a bad temporary option
As far as everyone keep on going to big cities that's what happens. People have to live somewhere, there's just so much space, so...
This type of room/living accommodation is described in Diane Johnson’s novel Le Divorce. The main character goes to stay with her sister who lives in Paris and she’s shocked to be put in a maid’s room where she must share a toilet & go downstairs to take showers in her sister’s apartment.